Intercultural Connections
Intercultural Connections

Pragmatic and innovative approaches to foster effective intercultural communication, understanding, and intercultural competence

Contact us. We welcome your questions!

Pragmatic and innovative approaches to foster effective intercultural communication, understanding, and intercultural competence

Contact us. We welcome your questions!

Intercultural Connections

Intercultural Communication Consultancy

We help communities and organizations:

  • Identify miscommunications and conflicts due to cultural differences
  • Cultivate cooperation and mutual understanding
  • Implement innovative and practical solutions 
  • Develop intercultural communication skills and intercultural competence
  • Work effectively towards shared goals with the co-creation of organizational and/or community culture

About Intercultural Connections

Our Mission

Our Services

Our Services

At Intercultural Connections, our mission is to help organizations and communities thrive by providing comprehensive intercultural communication and intercultural competence solutions tailored to our client's unique needs. 


Our team is committed to delivering results that exceed expectations.

Our Services

Our Services

Our Services

Intercultural Connections offers various services, including training, engagement, strategy, and facilitation. Our team has the expertise to help organizations and communities address intercultural conflicts and miscommunications. 

Our Approach

Our Services

Our Approach

At Intercultural Connections, we work closely with our clients to understand their needs and develop solutions tailored to their unique intercultural challenges. Our approach is pragmatic, results-driven, and designed to help diverse organizations and communities achieve their shared goals.

Intercultural communication skills to achieve shared goals

Please contact us at info@interculturalconnections.ca if you cannot find an answer to your question, want additional information, or to take advantage our our free 20 minute consultation.

 Organizations and communities face numerous intercultural communication challenges in today's globalized economy and world. They can significantly impact productivity, collaboration, and overall success. Common issues include:

  

Productivity Issues

Intercultural communication barriers can significantly impact business efficiency:

  • Slow progress and decreased productivity in multicultural teams.
  • Increase in meetings and lower overall productivity.
  • Time and energy are spent navigating language barriers and cultural misunderstandings instead of focusing on tasks.


Business Practice Variances

Different cultures may have varying approaches to:

  • Completing tasks.
  • Decision-making processes.
  • Time management and punctuality
  • Hierarchy and authority in the workplace.


Attitudes Toward Conflict and Decision-Making

Cultural differences in approaching conflict and making decisions can create tension:

  • Some cultures value in-depth discussions and consensus, while others prefer quick decisions and action.
  • Attitudes toward conflict resolution vary, with some cultures avoiding direct confrontation and others addressing issues head-on.


Decreased Employee/ Citizen Engagement and Participation

Cross-cultural communication challenges can lead to:

  • Low employee participation in meetings and team discussions.
  • Reluctance to share ideas or contribute to conversations, particularly in group settings.
  • Visible frustration during interactions (such as sighs or eye-rolling). 


Cultural Differences in Communication Styles

Different cultures have distinct communication norms and preferences, which can lead to misinterpretations and conflicts:

  •  Direct vs. Indirect Communication: Some cultures prefer direct communication, while others use more indirect methods. This can lead to misunderstandings about intentions and expectations.
  • High-Context vs. Low-Context Cultures: In high-context cultures, much is conveyed through implied meanings and context, while low-context cultures rely on explicit and detailed communication.
  • Non-Verbal Communication: Gestures, facial expressions, and body language can have different meanings across cultures. What's considered polite in one culture might be seen as rude in another.  


Cultural Differences in Values

  • Culturally based perspectives on how the world should work when operating normally are often assumed to be universal truths. Shared goals such as 'success' or the 'greater good' may be interpreted differently.


Cultural Differences in Safety Management

  •  Culturally based differences in approaches to risk perception, management, and safety can lead to different interpretations of safety messages and behaviours.


 Language Barriers

A challenge in intercultural communication is language skill diversity.

When employees or community members don't share the same familiarity level in their common language, misunderstandings and misinterpretations can occur, leading to communication breakdowns.

This can result in:

  • Frequent misunderstandings in multicultural places.
  • Incomplete or inaccurate information circulating within the community or organization.
  • Increased time and effort spent on clarifying messages.
  • Perceived insults.
  • Conflict.

 

Intercultural Connections can help organizations and communities create strategies to address these intercultural communication challenges.

Intercultural Connections works with clients of all sizes, from small businesses to large corporations. We also work with non-profit organizations, government agencies, and communities. 

The duration of an engagement with Intercultural Connections varies depending on the complexity of the challenges and your goals. We work with clients on both short-term and long-term projects.

Online meeting options help clients save time and money.

Intercultural communication, as a discipline, examines how cultural differences between interlocutors impact how messages are presented and perceived. 


'DEI' is an acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 


There is no clear definition of DEI, but generally, it utilizes scholarship from the transformative research paradigm. This paradigm aims to generate political and social change to reverse historical inequities. It uses "scholarship intertwined with politics and a political change agenda to confront social oppression at whatever level it occurs" (Mertens, 2007, 2008). 


Some DEI initiatives draw on the work of activist-scholars (e.g Peggy McInstosh, 1989;  Barbara Applebaum, 2010;  Robin Di Angelo ,2021, 2022; Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2017; Ta-Nahisi Coates, 2015; Crenshaw et al., 1995; Kimberlé Crenshaw, 2013a, 2013b,; and Ibram X. Kendi, 2016, 2023) whose scholarship is usually based on USA history and society and aims to impart critical consciousness, which is an awareness of the dimensions of oppression.


Culture, economics, history, and politics are complex. Analysis across multiple dimensions using a composite model of inquiry aids in counteracting simplistic misrepresentations or the assumptions that groups of people are monolithic. There is diversity and multiplicity within all human groups, and it's important not to expect a single story.  Intercultural communication examines these internal group complexities and cross-cultural factors, considering many dimensions. 

 

At Intercultural Connections, we endeavour to keep abreast of research and scholarship that evaluates best practices. We recognize the value of many aspects of DEI in cultivating the skills to communicate across differences. We have a "yes, and" approach, which embraces the complexity of cultures.  Intercultural communication and intercultural competence can and do intersect with the scholarship upon which DEI is based, but bring additional multidisciplinary lenses and global cultural perspectives.  


Research shows that some (but certainly not all ) ways of implementing DEI can adversely impact organizations (Kidder et al., 2004; Lai et al., 2014; Legault et al., 2011; Dobbin & Kalev, 2013, 2016, 2022; al-Gharbi, 2024; Jagdeep et al., 2024). This research shows that content, mode of delivery, and pace of expectations for behaviour change can alter how DEI programs impact an organization.


The most important difference between intercultural communication and DEI is their different skill sets and goals. Intercultural communication draws on a vast array of scholarship, including psychology, cognitive linguistics, history, and interdisciplinary cultural studies. DEI  primarily draws from "scholarship intertwined with politics and a political change agenda to confront social oppression at whatever level it occurs" (Mertens, 2007, 2008). 


Intercultural Connections provides your organization or community with intercultural communication skills. We take a practical approach and are committed to building your capacity for collaborative conversations. We will tailor strategies to foster effective communication across differences in your organization or community, facilitating cooperation towards shared goals.



References

(link to pdf file)

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/25935e62-1041-4b1b-a60e-34f4a4c9d1c1/references%20for%20FAQ%20DEI%20website%20section.pdf


Innovative Approach to Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Communication for the Co-Creation of Culture (IIC3)

 Leadership of organizations and communities requires bringing people together to identify and work cooperatively toward shared goals. It is a bit like navigating in an open vessel. People have been navigating from the night for thousands of years. The position of stars is the same, but the names of guiding constellations and the process of finding them differ from culture to culture. 


One of Intercultural Connection's unique offers is based on a research design by Kelley Abercrombie for her graduate degree in intercultural communication, IIC3 is a pragmatic process for people from diverse cultural backgrounds to understand each other's thinking about a specific domain or subject (for example, time or safety). 


By understanding each other's worldviews, the group learns to communicate effectively, gain skills to overcome future communication barriers, and co-create an organizational or community culture that fosters cooperation.

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Let us solve your intercultural communication challenges!

We want to help your organization or community create intercultural harmony. 

Intercultural Connections

based in Alberta, Canada

info@interculturalconnections.ca

 Flexible hours to accommodate North America, UK, Ireland, Australia, and NZ.

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